AI can turn the tide on organised environmental crime in Africa

Effective law enforcement depends on accessing and analysing vast amounts of data that can be acted on timeously. For police facing skills and funding limitations, such as many in Africa, managing data to generate outcomes is time consuming and expensive. 

Artificial intelligence (AI) can alleviate this burden. By processing massive amounts of data quickly, it can map the movements of offenders and illicit goods, identify patterns in criminal behaviour and activities, and make focused connections. 

AI has been recognised globally for its potential to save police hours of search and analysis work. In April, Britain’s government outlined how £230-million would be spent on AI technology to help the police save 38 million hours of police time. The European Union is implementing a project that uses AI to provide comprehensive intelligence to detect organised crime.

Policing organised environmental crime in particular is expensive, laborious and complex. These crimes often occur in remote, hard-to-access areas, involve different networks of actors, and cut across jurisdictions. Despite their significant costs to the environment, economy and society, environmental crimes tend to be a lower priority for law enforcement.

Research by the ENACT organised crime project at the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) shows how AI can do some of the resource-heavy and complex aspects of investigating environmental crime in Africa. 

TrailGuard AI is a system of cameras that enables national park officials to detect, stop and arrest poachers before they kill wildlife. The tiny cameras are easily camouflaged, and placed along trails where local intelligence has identified a threat. AI models filter out 99% of false positive images, saving battery life in remote places. 

Eric Dinerstein, director of Nightjar at the nonprofit organisation RESOLVE, which helped develop TrailGuard, told ISS Today that with good cell transmission, an image triggered by wildlife or poachers can reach a cellphone in about 30 seconds. This enables the appropriate authorities (such as park rangers or the police) to mount a real-time response. The system also works with other anti-poaching interventions, such as sniffer dogs. 

TrailGuard technology was first deployed at Tanzania’s Singita Grumeti Reserve in 2018. It enabled the arrest of 30 poachers and the seizure of almost 600kg of illegal bushmeat during a test phase in east Africa. 

Operation Pangolin was launched in 2023 as a collaboration between universities, conservation initiatives and Gabon’s National Agency for National Parks. It collects and processes data from existing trail cameras, using AI to recognise pangolins from camera traps and thermal cameras. The imagery is used with Spatial Monitoring and Reporting Tool data from ranger patrols to build predictive models for pangolin poaching. The project’s long-term aim is to develop separate AI models that help predict trafficking routes and markets. 

The project currently operates in Gabon and Cameroon and works closely with Nigerian stakeholders. Its team is exploring ways to build local capacity so that the data, technologies and tools continue to be used and offer value beyond the project scope. Team member Bistra Dilkina told ISS Today that the “AI tool is an empty shell without local data. We need local champions embedded in the project.”

Skylight is a marine data platform that applies AI-powered pattern recognition, computer vision and machine learning to satellite data. Skylight uses ship movement identification and analysis from subject matter experts and rapidly applies it globally to detect illegal fishing across the oceans. 

It alerts coastguards and other maritime enforcement agencies to suspicious vessel patterns and locations, allowing them to assess potential noncompliant or illegal activity and distinguish it from “normal” behaviour. Madagascar, Kenya, Gabon and nations around the Gulf of Guinea are among the 70 countries that use the platform. Officials use their knowledge of national laws and their institutions’ priorities, mandates and resources to determine how to respond. 

The data is received quickly enough that law enforcement can act fast, enabling timely intervention if necessary. According to Ted Schmitt, senior director of conservation and programme manager for Skylight, coastguards had used their data to board vessels and uncover illegal fishing activity.

Digital Earth Africa (DEA) takes vast raw geospatial satellite data from across Africa and translates it into analysis-ready information. Observing changes in land use over time from satellite imagery provides insights into illegal mining activities. For instance, surface-level activities such as creating artificial ponds, clearing vegetation and building access roads may indicate unlawful mining. 

Localised, real-time data on illicit mining can help make the deployment of limited resources more cost-efficient and effective. Ghana’s government has partnered with DEA to identify the location of illegal mining activities outside of mining concessions. 

There are also challenges and risks to harnessing AI for law enforcement in Africa. These include limitations in the availability and volume of local data and inadequate basic communication and digital infrastructure. A lack of technical skills and resources to respond to environmental crime even when identified, is also a problem, as is limited investment in research and development. There are also concerns about reactive regulatory systems and data privacy, unauthorised surveillance of civilians, and criminal threats. 

But AI is here to stay and is advancing quickly. By engaging with AI’s potential, policymakers across Africa could make a real difference in the fight against organised and complex crimes. 

This requires a dedicated investment in building the capacity to gather large, local and relevant data sets. Budgets will also need to be allocated to digital and communication infrastructure, and generating the human capacity and skills for AI development and implementation. 

With the African Union’s AI White Paper and Roadmap as a guide, African countries should draft and enact legislation on AI to ensure its use is regulated. Meanwhile, public-private partnerships can be leveraged to implement existing, proven AI interventions that can generate powerful crime-fighting tools. DM 

Romi Sigsworth, Research Consultant, ENACT, Institute for Security Studies (ISS).

First published by ISS Today.